Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Step 2: The Problem and the Question
In science, we often talk about “the problem” or “the question.” It is important to explain
the distinction between these two terms, even though we often use them interchangeably.
The problem
refers to the larger, overall picture, while
the question
is more specific and
contributes to resolving part of the problem. For example, Dr. William Bass founded the
famous forensic anthropological research facility at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville
because he had been approached by law enforcement with a time-since-death question for
a body found after a cemetery flood that he underestimated by over a century (
Bass and Jef-
ferson, 2003
). Therefore, the problem he was tackling with the creation of a specialized
outdoor decomposition facility was that human decomposition is a phenomenon science
knows nothing about. There are numerous questions that are specific to this particular
problem. Examples include the following: How long does it take a human body to decom-
pose in different temperatures? What are the stages of human decomposition? What are
the different variables that affect decomposition?
There are two types of questions
d
open-ended or closed-ended ones (
Marder, 2011
). See
Table
2.2
. Closed questions typically already have answers that are known or can be found out.
Examples include the following: How many bones does an adult human have? What is
the range of maximum cranial breadth for nonpathological adult skulls? How many bony
muscle attachments are there on the femur and what are they? Open questions on the other
hand are more challenging and complex because multiple answers may exist (
Marder, 2011
).
Examples include the following: Which bony features contain reliable information about age-
related change? Can shape analysis of the skull reveal information about biological distance
between populations? Can we determine what prehistoric health was like from examining
skeletons?
Your research will most likely include some combination of closed and open questions.
Even if you are only focusing on answering a closed question, consider that each closed
question essentially ties into an open question (
Marder, 2011
) and therefore will in some
way contribute to answering an open question. For example, a closed question in skeletal
biology may be as follows: Within what age range does the distal femoral epiphysis close
in modern Mexican males? This question has a simple answer that can be easily discovered.
An open question that this would tie into would be the following: What are the driving
TABLE 2.2 Examples of Open and Closed Questions
Open-Ended Questions
Closed-Ended Questions
Which bones can be used to estimate stature?
How many bones does a 1-year-old have?
Are there features on the skeleton that can be used
to estimate body mass?
Howmany muscle attachment sites are there on the
os coxae?
Can analysis of cranial landmarks be used to
estimate ancestry?
What are the cranial landmarks?
Can we tell what caused a particular lesion on
a bone?
What are the diseases we already know that do
affect bone?
